Zynga Poker has best mobile quarter ahead of 10th birthday

Zynga Poker is nearing its tenth birthday but the venerable free-play game just posted its best quarterly mobile performance in franchise history.

Social gamers Zynga released their Q1 report card on Thursday, which showed revenue rising 4% year-on-year to $194.3m in the three months ending March 31. Despite this gain, the company still reported a net loss of $9.5m, although that’s an improvement over the $26.6m loss in Q1 2016.

Bookings, the in-game sale of virtual goods, rose 14% to $207.4m, of which 85% came via mobile. Mobile bookings were up 27% year-on-year while mobile revenue was up 19%, accounting for 83% of overall revenue, ten points higher than in Q1 2016.

Things were less rosy on the ‘advertising and other’ front, thanks to what Zynga called a “softness” in the gaming ad market. The category’s revenue fell 18% to $40.8m.